Over three inches of rain fell across the region Thursday, Aug. 6, just as drought conditions reappeared in some of our area counties. The heavy rains came as this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor showed the return of moderate drought to four counties along the Missouri River. An area stretching from Orrick east to Miami are now in the first stage of drought conditions, joining six counties along the Arkansas border that saw improvement over the past week. 3.44% of Missouri is in moderate drought. Portions of three Southeast Missouri counties that had severe drought last week were all upgraded to moderate drought.